But is the shortage of US and UK a case of students not getting into software engineering because they know they will struggle to find work because they are expensive compared to their counterparts in countries like India?

I must admit if I was currently weighing up my career options I might be reluctant to be a software engineer with so much work being offshored.

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Very simple, the companies are not willing to pay reasonable rates thus ensuring that vacancies are not filled, providing the perfect excuse to apply for work visas for cheap labor from overseas. If the US (and Europe) are not careful they will destroy their technology sectors.

The US produces more STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) students than there are STEM graduate jobs. The best go into finance, accountancy etc because being a scientist, engineer or IT worker is underpaid. Cognizant and Infosys want to pay even lower than average STEM salaries for talent and can't attract it.

The huge number of engineers and IT workers that moved to the US from India in the last decade are now experiencing massive unemployment in the US and many are returning to India. There is no shortage of existing talented Indian (and American) IT workers in the US seeking work.

The interesting trend now is the displacement and replacement of the last wave of migrant IT workers with the next wave, as the routes that gave them their chance of the American dream now destroy that dream.

Define "problems". What kinds and amounts of effort were expended to recruit and exactly where, by what channels? For what kinds of projects were they recruiting? Were the "requirements" reasonable for the work to be done? Were the projects ethical? Were they seriously considering hiring any US candidates or merely going through the motions? Were they seriously considering hiring any US candidates over the age of 35? Were they offering reasonable relocation assistance to US candidates? Were they offering reasonable new-hire training to US candidates?

Or is this just another excuse for Tata to fail, once again near Cincinnati, as they failed in Buffalo, NY, to meet their promises to hire 1K US citizen employees within the USA, on the basis of which they received tens of millions of dollars in US tax-victim subsidies?

After Cohen and Grigsby's 7th annual employment and immigration law seminar videos, and the similar Fragomen et al. schemes hit the web one has to ask such questions, and seriously demand honest answers.

Sure, the exec of an India-based cross-border bodyshop (just like the unethical exec of a USA-based bodyshop and the exec in a USA-based college, university or research center and the immigration lawyer) who has a vested interest in cheap, pliant labor will always say there should be an infinite supply of it. He will say they tried "real hard" to recruit cheap, pliant labor in the USA but are shocked, shocked!, to find that their one ad in the Sopchoppy Shrimp Trader failed to turn up thousands of applicants with PhDs and 10 years of experience, under the age of 35, willing to work for $10K less than the average college new-hire in the field, and willing to enthusiastically carry out whatever unethical project comes into the execs' minds.

But, back here in the real world...

Studies carried out from the 1990s through 2010, by researchers from
Columbia U,
Computing Research Association (CRA),
Duke U,
Georgetown U,
Harvard U,
National Research Council of the NAS,
RAND Corporation,
Rochester Institute of Technology,
Rutgers U,
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation,
Stanford U,
SUNY Buffalo,
UC Davis,
UPenn Wharton School,
Urban Institute, and
US Dept. of Education Office of Education Research & Improvement
have reported that the USA has continually been producing more US citizen STEM (science, tech, engineering, math) workers than we've been employing in these fields.

There was no shortage of talented US citizen STEM workers.

There is no shortage of talented US citizen STEM workers.

No credible evidence of impending shortage of talented US citizen STEM workers has been produced.